HSE staff numbers to fall to 98,000 by 2014

NUMBERS WORKING in the HSE should be down to 98,000 by 2014, the organisation’s chief executive has said. Speaking yesterday at a conference for healthcare managers, Cathal Magee said reductions in staff would have “pretty profound implications” for HSE services.

At the peak, in 2008, more than 111,000 people were employed by the organisation. Since then numbers had dropped to 105,000, with the greatest drop of almost 20 per cent in general support staff numbers.

Management and administration staff recorded a fall of almost 13 per cent and the drop for nursing staff was just over 7 per cent. But there was an increase of almost 3 per cent in posts in the health and social care area. By 2014, the numbers employed would be equivalent to 2003/2004, Mr Magee said.

“If we look at the national recovery plan and also the overall estimates for employment in the public sector pro rata, that would suggest a further reduction of 6,000 between now and the end of 2014,” Mr Magee said.

He said he expected a significant number of health staff to retire by next February, when a beneficial tax regime for retirees comes to an end.

Mr Magee also told the Health Management Institute of Ireland inaugural annual conference that Ireland was still behind many of its European neighbours when it comes to health spending. While the Netherlands spent $5,000 (€3,770) per capita on health, Ireland spent $3,781 (€2,850). And that figure included 20 per cent on “social spend”, he said, which meant the real spending on health was even lower.

He said there needed to be significant investment in management within health. “The key challenge is to bring our clinicians into the managerial role.” He said the existing model of the HSE was “too centralised” and autonomy had to be moved back to the regions.

Minister for Health James Reilly, who opened yesterday’s conference, said he would like to see offices carrying a sign saying, “It’s the patient, stupid” because it was “desperately, dangerously easy to fall in love with process” and forget the patient. “I want to turn the health service upside down so the patient comes first, in the middle and last,” he said.